The boy and the art shop

Read the following story and answer the questions below: 

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A long time ago there was a man who wanted to open a shop for his paintings and sell painting material like paintbrushes as well as canvases for people to paint on. 

He started looking for a shop, where it would be best to do this as not all people are artists. An artist has a gift that not all of us have. We are inclined to forget that everyone has his own gifts and they are just different gifts we get when we are born.  

These gifts we receive are the ones we have to use to get ahead in life. We do not all have the same gifts, but we should be grateful for what we have. Some people have great voices, while others can write stories and some people are good at building things.  

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We need to develop these gifts so that we can develop into the best possible person we can become. 

This man found a shop and bought all his stock for people to buy and develop their gifts.  

One day he saw a little boy standing outside the shop with his hands on the window peeping in. 

He walked to the door and said “Do you want to come inside and see? “ The boy ignored him and just went on peeping through his hands and was not even reacting to what the man was saying. 

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The man thought “What a nasty child… he is making my windows dirty and not even answering me.” 

Then the man said: “Why are you ignoring me when I speak to you? I am now going to fetch water and a sponge so that you can clean this window that you messed up.  

He was still ignored by the child, but went and got the stuff to wash the window. 

He grabbed the child by the shoulder and pushed him away. The child fell down and sat up with a lot of fright on his face.

 “You nasty child! Clean this window where you made it dirty.”  

The child got up and started running away. 

People inside the shop saw what was happening and came outside. They asked the owner “what are you doing”?  

“My shop window is such a mess because of that child, and he does not even react when I told him to clean it, even after I asked him whether he wanted to come inside.” 

“Oh please said one of the ladies, he is a child that lives around here and we all know that he is deaf and dumb. You are the nasty one, not him!” 

 The man felt very bad, because he judged someone without even trying to find out why the person was not reacting. 

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He went to the house of the child and apologised. He saw all these lovely pictures made in crayon on the wall and asked: “Who made these?”  

His mother said “My son, he has a few crayons and we get pieces of paper from people who give them to us so that he can draw.” 

The man felt so bad and explained to the mother how nasty he was. He said: “Bring the boy to the shop and he can draw there and sell some of his pictures. If you don’t mind I will take half of the money he makes but he will be able to use anything in the shop that he needs.” 

The moral of this storey is never judge someone before you know the truth. Judging people is bad as we all are only human and we all do things that other people do not like. 

Please complete the following questions.

1. What was wrong with the little boy? 

2. Why was the man angry? 

3. Did the man fix the problem he had caused? 

4.Could this little boy sing? 

5.Where did the little boy go after the man grabbed him?